President Search Updates

UPDATE: March 5, 2018

Presidential Search Committee has selected eight semifinalists

The Presidential Search Committee met on Friday, March 2, 2018. The purpose of the meeting was to review candidates for the position of president and select semi-finalists for neutral site interviews. The committee discussed the candidates from a deep pool of qualified individuals and ultimately selected eight semifinalists about whom they wanted to learn more. Neutral site interviews with those semifinalists will occur later this month. The committee asks for your continued prayers and support as it continues its important work.

UPDATE: December 7, 2017

PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH UPDATE

The Presidential Search Committee will strive throughout the search -- and particularly in the early stages -- to ensure that its process is inclusive. As part of that effort, Academic Search, the executive search firm retained by the university for the presidential search, will engage in conversations for institutional analysis with various constituencies at the university. Those meetings will occur on Monday, December 11, 2017 (Winona campus) and Tuesday, December 12, 2017 (Twin Cities campus). The conversations will be facilitated by Andrea Warren Hamos, Ph.D., and Richard Artman, Ph.D., search counsel for the Presidential Search Committee. Invitations to the conversations have been sent via email to various university constituencies.

These conversations have three primary purposes:

To insure that Dr. Hamos and Dr. Artman are well informed about our university and our presidency so they may perform their consultative role with genuine understanding and sensitivity.

To give people from a variety of constituencies an opportunity to register their views about future needs and priorities of our university in order to build confidence in the search process and its result.

To enable Dr. Hamos and Dr. Artman to produce a search profile that outlines key institutional needs and priorities and proposes a related set of desired characteristics and talents to guide the search process.

Faculty, staff, and students may also offer their perspectives on the future needs and priorities of the university by email to presidentialsearch@smumn.edu or by completing the Presidential Search Input Form at https://goo.gl/forms/JhscclsPOU3zZE183. Input provided in the emails and the form will be sent directly to Dr. Rick Artman, Senior Search Consultant with Academic Search.

Based on the input received during this initial phase of its work, the Presidential Search Committee will develop a presidential profile -- to be made available to the university community -- that will articulate key institutional needs and priorities and a related set of desired characteristics and talents for the next president. Once that document is created, the Presidential Search Committee will begin the confidential process of researching and identifying prospective candidates for the position.

After thoughtful and careful deliberation, the Board of Trustees has determined that a confidential process is critical to a successful search. The best candidates will not appear for an open or compromised search. Thus, a confidential search process will ensure the widest possible range of candidates. Confidentiality protects candidates whose current jobs could be jeopardized if their employers learned of the search, or whose reputations could suffer significant damage in the event that they were not selected. The Presidential Search Committee strongly believes that failure to conduct the presidential search in a highly confidential manner would adversely affect the number and quality of the candidates who would be interested in applying for the position.

The Presidential Search Committee is comfortable that the significant efforts to obtain input at the beginning of the process, as well as the representation of campus constituencies among the membership of the Presidential Search Committee itself, will allow the Committee to consider all community voices throughout the search process.

UPDATE: November 30, 2017

PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH UPDATE

The Presidential Search Committee met on Nov. 21, 2017 with two executive search firms. After thoughtful discussion and consideration, the committee selected Academic Search to lead the presidential search for Saint Mary's University of Minnesota.

Academic Search is a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Leadership Institute (AALI). AALI works with, among others, the Council of Independent Colleges to strengthen higher education leadership through professional development opportunities for higher education professionals. For four decades, Academic Search has worked with colleges and universities to recruit senior-level executives. Since its inception in 1976, Academic Search has completed more than 1,630 senior-level executive searches of which half have been presidential searches. Academic Search was the firm used by the College of Saint Benedict, Saint John's University, and the College of Saint Scholastica in their successful presidential searches.

Our consultants for the search will be Dr. Andrea Warren Hamos and Dr. Richard Artman.

Dr. Hamos is the vice president for consulting operations and a senior consultant at Academic Search. Prior to her appointment at Academic Search, Dr. Hamos served for five years as associate director, and subsequently interim director, of the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Emerging Leaders Group and the ACE Fellows Program. At ACE, Dr. Hamos also served as a co-chair of its annual meeting, work that included the development of programs for presidents and chancellors, new presidents, and presidential spouses and partners. Prior to joining ACE, Dr. Hamos rose through academic ranks and served as department chair, associate dean, and acting dean of the college at liberal arts colleges in Massachusetts and Virginia. Dr. Hamos received her academic training at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a B.A. in Spanish and French cum laude and her Ph.D. in Spanish literature.

Dr. Artman is a senior consultant at Academic Search. He is president emeritus of Viterbo University (Wis.) where he served as president and professor of ethical leadership. He also served as president of Siena Heights University (Mich.). Dr. Artman has a distinguished career in higher education administration, including 22 years as a university president and over 20 years in student affairs administration at the University of Miami (Fla.) and at Nebraska Wesleyan University. His professional experiences include serving on the board of directors of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), the Council of Independent Colleges (CIC), and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), including service as chair of the Council of Presidents. He served as consultant-evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission for 24 years. Dr. Artman earned his Ph.D. in higher education administration from the University of Miami.

The Presidential Search Committee looks forward to its work with Academic Search during the presidential search process.

Terry Russell
Chair, Presidential Search Committee

Mary Ann Remick
Chair, Board of Trustees

UPDATE: November 10, 2017

PRESIDENTIAL SEARCH UPDATE

The Presidential Search Committee met on Oct. 24, 2017. At that meeting, the committee reviewed its charge which includes, but is not limited to, the following:

Each member of the Presidential Search Committee must attest to keeping all matters coming before the committee, including candidate names, absolutely confidential. Members of the Presidential Search committee must never reveal the names of candidates or committee deliberations to any third party.

The Presidential Search Committee will seek a candidate who best fits the position description approved by the Board of Trustees.

The Board of Trustees has authorized the use of a search firm to assist with this presidential search. A requests for proposals were sent to seven executive search firms with experience in recruiting candidates to serve as presidents at Catholic colleges and universities. Five executive search firms submitted proposals in response to the request. At the meeting on Oct. 24, the committee carefully reviewed and discussed the responses to the requests for proposals. The committee selected two firms to interview. Those interviews will occur on Nov. 21, 2017.

We ask for your prayers and continued support as we undertake the search for a new president.

UPDATE: October 23, 2017

Presidential Search Committee Announced

The Board of Trustees for Saint Mary's University of Minnesota has established a Presidential Search Committee to seek out, review, and recommend qualified candidates for the presidency of the University. We are pleased to announce that the following individuals have been appointed to the committee:

The Board of Trustees has approved the retention of a search firm to assist with this presidential search.

The Board of Trustees and its Presidential Search Committee are committed to the appointment of an outstanding president for Saint Mary's University of Minnesota. A successful search for our next president will require the support and cooperation of the entire university community. We wish to thank you in advance for the contributions that we know all will make to this important process.

Terry Russell, Chair, Presidential Search Committee

Mary Ann Remick, Chair, Board of Trustees

UPDATE: September 22, 2017

Brother William Mann, president of Saint Mary’s University, announces he will step down in May 2018

In a letter to faculty, staff, students, and alumni, Brother William Mann—president of Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota—announced today (Sept.19) that after considerable reflection, prayer, and discernment, he will conclude his service in May 2018.

Brother William took over as Saint Mary’s 13th president in 2008 and has provided 10 years of dedicated and inspirational leadership to the university.

As stated in his letter, the Saint Mary’s University Board of Trustees will begin the process of identifying his successor.

Prior to becoming Saint Mary’s president, Brother William spent almost 30 years in leadership roles with the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools.

A native of New York City, he joined the De La Salle Christian Brothers in 1965. He began his career as an English and religion teacher at two Christian Brother high schools in New York and Rhode Island. He then held numerous positions within the Christian Brothers, including Vicar General from 2000 to 2007—the second-highest officer of the international Catholic teaching order.

While serving on the Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota Board of Trustees from 1996-2001, Brother William began working to further Saint Mary’s mission. Under his leadership as president, the university is well positioned to meet the challenges of today’s higher education landscape.

Strategic Plan 2017, which was developed under his leadership with input from over 900 stakeholders, has begun to produce extraordinarily positive and good fruit:

Goal 4 … Science Initiative … the opening in 2017 of a 50,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility at the College in Winona … the inauguration in 2017 of a collaboration with Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences on a new and prestigious 3+2 physician assistant program … the acquisition of Cascade Meadow Wetlands & Environmental Science Center in 2015 and the recent groundbreaking at this locus of the SGPP Rochester Initiative … in an expanded 25,000 square-foot state-of-the-art facility.

Goal 6 … Graduate On-line Initiative … a cost and revenue sharing partnership with Wiley Deltak … that has grown from 47 graduate students five years ago to over 1,200 students … with a 90% persistence rate.

Goal 2 … Mission & Identity Initiative … First Generation (undergraduate scholars and high school Countdown-to-College components) … an internationally recognized Lasallian Research Symposium … Lasallian education & formation participation by faculty, staff, and administrators resulting in positive attention not just to the university but increasingly to professors and staff of the university publishing on the topic and being invited to present at national and international conferences and symposia.

Goal 9 … Philanthropy Initiative … moving the needle … from on-average $4.5M raised annually … to a total of more than $55M raised in the past four years … meaning that all of the initiatives mentioned to this point have either funded themselves or been completely funded by philanthropic investment … because benefactors, trustees, alums, families, and friends believe the university is serious in what it set out to do in Strategic Plan 2017.

Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the university have worked “together and by association” such that the university is enjoying the new spring of its second century.